The Mastering Show

Translation is one of the main goals of mastering - make the music sound great on any platform, and any delivery format.

But how is that possible ? How can we optimise the audio to sound great on both a huge PA and crappy earbuds, or via any data-encoded stream, when we don't have any control over those playback systems or streaming platforms ?

The answer to this paradox is deceptively simple - and powerful. In this episode I explain the common misconception of what 'translation' is; what the term really means to me, and share three simple suggestions to help you get your music to translate - on any playback system.

Full links on our website:

www.themasteringshow.com/episode-102

Mentioned in this episode:

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Mastering

Click HERE to work with Ian

Brian Eno is probably the musician, producer and artist who has had the single biggest influence on my music taste and enjoyment over the years. His work speaks for itself and needs no introduction !

So when I heard Emre Ramazanoglu talking on the Working Class Audio podcast about re-mixing and mastering many of Brian's classic albums for Dolby Atmos, my ears immediately pricked up. I just couldn't miss the chance to talk to him in more detail about working with Brian - and the amazing detective work that it involved.

So in this episode Emre and I take a deep dive into this fascinating subject, talking about things like:

• "Audio archeology" – the challenges of mixing Eno's older material, and the unexpected solutions Emre found
• How mixing for Eno is different from Emre's usual workflow, even with brand new releases
• The lessons Emre learned - and why this might be what makes Eno such a great producer
• New immersive strategies Emre developed specifically for these albums...
• ...and how they're helping his stereo mixing as well !

Full links on our website:

www.themasteringshow.com/episode-101

Mentioned in this episode:

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

I wanted to do something a little different to mark the 100th episode, but wasn't sure what. I was wondering about interviewing myself but that seemed a little weird...

And then Matt Boudreau from the excellent Working Class Audio podcast invited me back onto his show, and it occurred to me - I could get Matt to interview me, which would be way more fun and get some much more interesting questions !

So here it is. Matt and I talk about all kinds of things including:

• My background in music, production and music technology
• How I got my start as a mastering engineer
• The responsibilities of the mastering engineer (and the mistake that nearly cost me my job)
• My first mastering chain, and how it inspired my Perception AB plugin
• How I feel about being 'The Loudness Guy'
• Hardware versus 'in-the-box' mastering
• Why mastering matters

And loads more !

Full links on our website:

www.themasteringshow.com/episode-100

Mentioned in this episode:

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Stereo, mono, binaural or surround-sound ?

I've worked with this episode's guest in all these formats and more over the many years we've been working together - but which does he prefer, and why ?

Richard Durrant describes himself as an "Indie Classical" musician, which I think is a pretty good summary - but doesn't really take into account the fact that he also toured with Sky, worked as an accomplished session musician for many years and has released albums in a brilliantly eclectic variety of other genres and styles over the years.

In this conversation we talk about:

• Why Richard records in an "acoustic igloo" (and what that is)
• Mic techniques for guitar and dealing with "wolf notes" on stringed instruments
• Real spaces versus digital reverb
• Touring (and performing) with a bicycle
• Performing Bach's cello suites on Banjo and Ukulele - how and why

Full links on our website:

www.themasteringshow.com/episode-99

Mentioned in this episode:

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

'Stem mastering' has provoked a ton of debate recently, with people claiming it crosses the line between mixing and mastering, interferes with the artist's intent, and isn't even really mastering at all !

But if that's true, why would Abbey Road, one of the biggest mastering studios in the world, offer a dedicated stem mastering service ?!

In this episode I talk to Oli Morgan, who specialises in stem mastering and mixing in mastering in Dolby Atmos at Abbey Road, about all these questions and more. We talk about:

• How he got started in mastering (and what that has in common with me)
• His perspective on stem mastering – when and how it can be helpful
• How (and why) stem mastering is a key element for working in Immersive Audio and Dolby Atmos
• What we can learn about dynamics from working in Dolby Atmos
• Why the 'pressure sound' may not be all about heavy limiting
• How we might be able to have our cake and eat it in the quest to balance loudness and dynamics

Full links on our website:

www.themasteringshow.com/episode-98

Mentioned in this episode:

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

The term “legend” gets thrown all the time in audio production circles, but my guest this episode really deserves it.

I’m sure you already know this but Ken Scott has worked with the Beatles, David Bowie, Elton John and Supertramp amongst so many others, so I was delighted when he agreed to join me for this episode !

There were so many things we could have talked about it was hard to know where to start, but here are just a few of the topics we covered:

* Why Abbey Road trained their engineers in mastering before they were ever allowed to engineer a recording session

* The value of mentors - and being thrown in at the deep end

* Mixing in sections (instead of using automation)

* When limited resources are a Good Thing

* Re-mixing Ziggy Stardust in Dolby Atmos (with added drum samples…!)

* …and how the new mix translates to stereo

Full show notes on our website

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-97

Mentioned in this episode:

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

We’ve been using “soft clipping" in mastering for over 20 years at this point, but it suddenly feels as if it’s all anyone is talking about ! New plugins, new suggestions about how to use it, and wild new claims about how amazing it sounds.

Except it doesn’t.

At least – not all the time, and not for all material.

In this episode Joe Caithness and I dig deep into the details and talk about:

* What clipping is, and what it isn’t

* The crucial differences between hard and soft clipping

* What makes a great clipping plugin (and why comparing them is a nightmare)

* Some of our favourite clipping plugins and how we use them

* The kinds of material that work best with clipping, and what type to use

* The golden rule to follow if you want to experiment with clipping yourself

Full show notes and links on our website:

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-96

Mentioned in this episode:

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

The Billboard Top 50 global singles from the first half of 2024 have an average loudness of -8.3 LUFS

So that’s how loud we should be making our masters, right ?

Well…

It certainly might seem that way, but in reality it’s a bit more complicated than that. This is only one of the interesting results that Ian Stewart presented in his latest blog post for iZoTope, and in this episode I asked him back on to really dig into some of the details and nuance.

Plus I also wanted to talk to him about the amazing plug-in that got invented during the last episode he was on ! (Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it 😛)

During the show we talk about:

* What that -8 LUFS average result REALLY means, and how much attention you should pay to it

* Who the most successful artist in the Top 50 is, and the loudness statistics of their music

* The problem with the title iZotope chose for the post

* All the other results, trends and biases in the data

* Basslane Pro, the plug-in Ian worked with Tone Projects to develop, why it’s unique - and how The Mastering Show helped it happen !

Full show notes on our site

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-95

Mentioned in this episode:

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

People are always asking me about mastering for vinyl, and I’m happy to try and help based on the experience I have. I don’t actually cut vinyl myself though, so that advice is always limited and second-hand.

So for this episode I decided to talk to a genuine expert on the topic - Scott Hull from Masterdisk - and really get into the details.

Scott’s knowledge and experience of cutting vinyl is enormous, as you’ll hear, and I took full advantage of that in this episode ! Some of the things we talked about include:

The 4 stages of vinyl production, and why each is important

How making assumptions about vinyl mastering can backfire

Why choosing which plant is going to press the records is crucial

The crucial role of the lathe - and it’s setup

The myth of duration on vinyl - why “20 minutes per side” isn’t a hard and fast rule

Why less limiting allows you to cut louder on vinyl

What is the magic of vinyl ?

Full show notes and links on our website

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-94

Mentioned in this episode:

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins